It is an honour and privilege to present this further memorial tribute to those early pioneers in the aeronautical world, William Samuel Henson and John Stringfellow. It is a very long way from their pioneering achievements in the aeronautical field and their model flying activities of the 1840s to the subject of the management of the MRCA project, an international collaborative development of an advanced technology aircraft. However, it is not devoid of associations. The fact that the Memorial Lecture is dedicated to Henson and Stringfellow is in itself a recognition of collaborative venture in aeronautics. The First Memorial Lecture was also a unique occasion in the collaboration in its preparation between the current secretary and the past secretary of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

I would like to take one quotation from the First Memorial Lecture'11, where it is recorded that String-fellow wrote to Henson on 25th July 1845 as follows:

“I received two notes from Marriott: in the one received this morning there was a proposition which I give you under and to which I believe Columbine is agreeable, that is to divide the patent interests into 12 as follows, Henson 4/12, Columbine 4/12, Marriott 2/12, String-fellow 2/12—this Marriott thinks equable and just.